Review: Penny Dreadful Season 3 Episode 7

After the dramatic end to episode 6, episode 7 doesn’t slow down the pace of Penny Dreadful. One of the main focuses of No Beast so Fierce was the saving of Ethan’s soul from the Devil and Ebb Tide continues that theme with both Lily and Vanessa’s souls on the line.

After the heartache of hearing his son scream at the sight of him, Caliban is in need of a friend. He realises the only friend he has is Vanessa and pays her a visit. She is delighted to see him (and still calls him his other alias of John Clare) and lends him her ear. She encourages him to show himself to his family as the man she knew deserved to be loved. He seems surprised at this comment and she explains she knows that he was the orderly in the Banning Clinic. He has no recollection of their previous meeting but takes her advice. He presents himself to his wife and tells her everything that has happened to him since his death/rebirth. She doesn’t reject him, as he had feared, and says that his return is a strange and wonderful thing. She then tells their son Jack that he has returned to them and in a touching moment, Caliban gets to hug his son tight, like he has ached to do so for so long. After the breaking of audience’s hearts last week, it’s happy tears that are shed for the family reunion.

As Lily sends her army of prostitutes to the streets, Dorian feels he’s losing his grip on her and his own home. After a threat from Justine, he decides to take matters (and her neck) into his own hands. During a walk around London with Lily, it’s revealed that he has indeed teamed up with Frankenstein and Jekyll (as suspected he would after saving Victor’s life). When she comes to, Lily is none too pleased but we’ll have to wait and see how that story arc ends.

With Ethan’s soul saved thanks to Sir Malcolm, their attention turns back to London and Vanessa. Ethan is hopeful that he hasn’t ruined his chances with her but during a discussion with Kaetenay, the Apache is hit with a vision that they may be too late to save her. He uses his Native American juju while aboard the ship to England in order to talk to Vanessa. He tells her that she is made for the day and not the night to which she replies:

There Sir, you are wrong – Vanessa to Kartenay

With that, her eyes turn red and demon-like and Kaetenay comes back to the boat and informs Ethan and Sir Malcolm that she is damned. Ethan proclaims that as long as he walks this earth, she will be saved, but is he truly too late?

Vanessa’s story arc ended last week with her making the beast with two backs with Alexander in the “night creatures” room. After her conversation with Caliban/John Clare, she is still walking on air from the night’s activities; that is before Catriona shows up at her door. She has found out some interesting facts about Dracula: in human form, he’s as mortal as the rest of us and can be killed as easily. He’s also said to dwell with the night creatures, and with that one sentence, Vanessa knows who Dracula is (took her long enough). With that, she grabs a gun and makes her way to confront him. He knows his identity has been discovered and doesn’t hide it from her and even while looking down the barrel of her gun, insists that he just wants her to love him as he is like he loves her for who she is. She can be her true self with him and not what society insists is normal for her to be. When he asks her if she accepts him, she replies that she accepts herself and exposes her neck for him to feed on.

His Master won’t like this!

After all the battles and demon fighting over the past 3 seasons, Vanessa gives into being the Mother of Evil rather easily in the end. With her embracing her “true” self, she unleashes the darkness onto the world and it’s up to Ethan, Kaetenay and Sir Malcolm to stop her. Maybe the others will get involved also as it is their world too, but we won’t know how it all ends until next week’s double episode finale.

Geek Ireland Chief of Operations, Film and TV enthusiast who is a Disnerd in every sense of the word: Animation, Pixar, Live action, Marvel and especially, Lucasfilm lover. Also be warned - don't talk to her before she's had at least 1 cup of tea....for your own safety.